


lay ybounden

by pelican_in_its_piety



Series: three from the circle [1]
Category: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper, Historical Farm (UK TV)
Genre: Christian/folk magic syncretism, Multi, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Sex Magic, subtle Old Ones (Dark is Rising) AU, the English Reformation and its attendant anxieties abt popular piety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:22:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29770623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pelican_in_its_piety/pseuds/pelican_in_its_piety
Summary: “Sex is a kind of knowledge too,” Ruth says. “As an offering, an appeasement or an exchange. As a binding, as a calling. And as a curse, striking to the heart of a person.” On ye byndynge and leowsin.
Relationships: Alex Langlands/Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn/Alex Langlands, Peter Ginn/Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn/Ruth Goodman/Alex Langlands
Series: three from the circle [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2188050
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	lay ybounden

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheGoodDoctor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGoodDoctor/gifts).
  * Inspired by [two magicians](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23169925) by [TheGoodDoctor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGoodDoctor/pseuds/TheGoodDoctor). 



“Sex is a kind of knowledge too,” Ruth says. “As an offering, an appeasement or an exchange. As a binding, as a calling. And as a curse, striking to the heart of a person.” They are in the farmhouse kitchen, lingering over the remains of their evening meal. Peter nods attentively. Alex guesses he knows this already but is too polite to rub it in Alex’s face. For a moment he feels intensely unlettered. “John Maxwell aside,” she continues, “I’d rather not brew up a baby. I’m too old for it to be safe and I didn’t marry or have babies when I was younger for a reason.” Peter looks at her, inquisitive but not surprised. She doesn’t say more.

“Our intentions matter. Most would say that sex for its own sake brings fertility and joy – to the woman, or if she is taking herbs to prevent that, to the crops and animals. But,” and she stops here and looks hard at Peter and Alex, “I think this is something stronger.”

Alex blurts out, “I love you both.” Peter takes his hand where it lies loose on the table, covering it with both of his. Ruth looks at them, blushing for the first time.

“And so,” she says, “if we want this to bind us together, it will. If you didn’t know this was a possibility, and swived with love, it still might. The magick isn’t docile and biddable if you aren’t focused on it. And with love…”

“It is its own ritual,” Peter finishes.

Alex says, “I would like to be bound to you, if you’d have me.”

Ruth says, “I think we already are bound, really. But yes, I want that too.”

“More than anything in the world,” says Peter.

“Except for a good harvest and healthy lambs?” Alex asks.

“All the same thing,” says Peter. “Joy and safety and you, warm.”

Ruth stands. “The dishes will wait,” she says. She smooths her apron and turns to one of the cupboards, taking a small jar of seeds down from a shelf. “Queen Anne’s Lace,” she says, setting it on the table. “For me to chew when we’ve finished.”

“Whose bed shall we christen?” says Peter.

Alex, bold now, says “Mine please. For all the nights I’ve touched myself, trying not to think of you.”

Peter kisses him for that, and Alex leans into his mouth and goes limp. “We can push our beds together,” he says. “You’re quiet, but I’m a light sleeper. I’ve heard the cut off breathy sounds you make and I want to hear them louder.”

“What am I, the neighbour’s wife?” cuts in Ruth. “Is this the courtesy you show a lady?”

Alex reaches over and scoops her up, carries her over the threshold of his and Peter’s bedroom. When he lays her down on his bed, she stays where she’s put and lifts one knee, plants the foot on the bed in invitation.

Peter says, “Not so fast, Alex. Moving the beds, remember? It will be worth it.” And they do, managing Peter’s bed across the few feet of space between them and tucking it against Alex’s. It is like another joining. Ruth sits up.

“A prayer?” she says. “Or something stronger?”

Peter says, “We don’t need that. Just rest your mind on it, Alex.” He is behind Alex now, one palm on Alex’s thigh, the other on his chest. Alex leans his head back on Peter’s shoulder

“I’ve got it, I think,” he says, and gasps as Peter pinches his nipple. There is a little ripple and crack in the air, and the working has begun.

Ruth is undressing by rushlight. Alex watches as she lifts her shift, shameless. Her breasts are like the chalk of the downs. Her womb has never borne a child. Peter releases him, and he takes one, two steps to Ruth and kneels at her feet. She cups his face in her hands and he turns, kisses her thumb, licks at her palm. Peter makes a choking noise behind him. It comes to him that maybe Ruth and Peter have never fucked, that maybe they are as new to each other’s bodies as Alex is to theirs. The thought alarms and reassures him. He is so used to being unmoored while they are sure, but today he has had surges of _knowing_.

He buries his face between Ruth’s thighs. Her hands come to rest on his shoulders, carefully not demanding. She is praying: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesu.” The air prickles Alex’s skin. Peter has dipped a finger in the pot of lard Alex keeps beside his bed, and is easing it along the cleft of Alex’s arse. When Peter’s thick finger pushes inside, Alex gasps and jerks forward. Ruth gentles him, smoothing her thumb along the hollow beside his eye, drawing tiny symbols there.

When Peter adds another finger and wiggles them, Alex cannot focus on Ruth’s cunt. Her scent surrounds him and his cheeks are sticky with her. He rests his cheek on her thigh and holds onto her for dear life, pushing his arse back for Peter. Then Peter’s cock is stretching him open and they are joined, fucking.

He had not guessed how being buggered would shake his whole body, how helpless and beloved he would feel. It hurts, some, but never so much that he wants it to stop. He feels exquisitely full. And then Ruth is lifting his hands from her waist, slipping off the bed and – oh – taking his cock in her mouth. She licks carefully, exploring, trying to work around Peter and Alex’s motion. One hand fondles his stones, reaching back almost to where Peter stretches him open, and Alex shouts and shakes. He thinks he cannot bear anymore, that the pleasure itself is pain, bright edged, and then he comes.

The release itself is nothing compared to what came just before it, and he is immediately too sensitive, as is his way. He fumbles Ruth’s head away from his cock, and Peter pauses in his steady fucking, mouthing at Alex’s shoulder blade. Alex crawls off his cock and curls up on his side on the bed, watching expectantly. There is some shuffling as Peter and Ruth rearrange themselves next to him, Peter on his back, Ruth astride. Ruth reaches out her left hand and Peter his right, and Alex takes their hands: a circle. Then Ruth sinks down on Peter’s cock.

She rides him quiet, determined. Peter is already close from being in Alex. He comes with a grunt, clutching Ruth to his chest. She kisses him, long and sweet. He pulls out of her and she nestles against Peter’s chest. Peter rubs at her cunt in little focused circles. It is a long time, a time out of time, before Ruth cries out and goes stiff. Peter licks his fingers clean then kisses Alex. Alex tastes the three of them on Peter’s mouth.

**Author's Note:**

> The Good Doctor's two magicians is set in Edward VI's England, so this work is too, though it could also be early Stuart (Green Valley/1620s), which would account for the Queen Anne's Lace anachronism as it was named for James I's queen. Title from the Middle English 'Adam lay ybounden.' Thanks to the Middle English Compendium and most of my undergrad education for leading me to this piece of porn.


End file.
